Trash compactors have become increasingly popular in recent years, in both domestic and commercial applications. However, the advent of recycling practices, and more particularly the advent of recycling practices directed to the separate collection and disposal of different kinds of solid waste, has made it apparent that previously available trash compactors are characterized by certain problems. For example, most of the previously known solid waste compactors, and virtually all of the compactors that are commercially available for domestic use, include only a single compaction receptacle. In such compactors different kinds of solid wastes, for example paper, glass, aluminum cans and steel cans, are mixed and compacted together. Although such compactors are acceptable where it is desired to discard different kinds of waste in mixed form, they are not conducive to the separate disposal and recycling of different categories of solid waste, for example paper, aluminum, glass and steel.
Several compactors having two or more waste receptacles have been proposed in the prior art, as described for example in some of the references cited below. However, the introduction of multiple waste receptacles in the prior art compactors results in new problems. For example, such compactors are typically large and unwieldy, and for this reason are generally unsuitable for domestic or light commercial use. Where a single compaction ram is employed with multiple waste receptacles, complex structures have been necessary to move the ram about on tracks or rails. The alternative, namely the use of multiple, independently actuated rams in the manners disclosed in the prior art, is also complex and costly. Moreover, in the prior art compactors having multiple waste receptacles, the particular structures associated with the use of multiple receptacles renders it difficult to readily discard waste into each of the several receptacles, and to remove the receptacles from the compactor assembly for emptying and disposal of the compacted waste.
As noted above, a number of solid waste compactors are disclosed in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 737,427, issued Aug. 25, 1903 to Lemberg, discloses a machine for compressing detinned iron and steel scraps. The machine includes stationary plungers and corresponding boxes, which are raised upward hydraulically to compress scraps contained in the boxes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,125, issued Sept. 12, 1978 to Schiller, discloses a refuse vehicle having multiple chambers for receiving different categories of refuse, with pressing plates in the chambers for compressing the refuse and for ejecting it from the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,495,376, issued Nov. 29, 1970 to Lundgren, discloses a refuse collecting machine which includes multiple refuse-containing compartments and a compressing device which is movable over the compartments and which is pressed downwardly to compress refuse therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,685,438, issued Aug. 22, 1972 to Ziegler, discloses a refuse compactor for use with a portable refuse container.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,321, issued on April 15, 1969 to Gladwin, discloses a trash compressor having a single ram which is selectively positionable on a set of tracks over one of two receptacles.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,808,967, issued May 7, 1974 to Fair et al., discloses a two-station trash compactor having a single hydraulic ram which is movable on rails over a pair of trash containers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,561, issued Feb. 4, 1975 to Karls, discloses a top-loading compactor having a bellows-covered, mechanical scissors-type ram assembly which is movable on rails over a pair of trash containers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,669, issued Aug. 7, 1984 to Van Doorn et al., discloses a a system having multiple receiving bins for receiving textile waste, and a transfer mechanism for selectively moving each bin back and forth between a filling station and a compression station.
In view of the foregoing, it is the object and purpose of the present invention to provide a solid waste compactor which is capable of separately receiving, temporarily holding, and compacting multiple classes of trash, refuse or other solid waste, particularly including recyclable solid waste.
It is also an object and purpose of the present invention to provide a solid waste compactor which attains the foregoing objects and purposes in a compact apparatus suitable for domestic as well as commercial use.
It is another object and purpose of the present invention to provide a solid waste compactor which attains the foregoing objects and purposes, and which also includes means facilitating the introduction of solid waste into each of multiple solid waste receptacles, and which also includes means facilitating the removal of such receptacles from the compactor for emptying.